Monday, April 19, 2010

Fifteen Years after the OKC Bombing, Home-Grown Extremist Threats Continue

Today is the fifteenth anniversary of the bombing of the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City.

Unfortunately for Oklahoma and the nation, the extremist ideology espoused by Timothy McVeigh is still around today, promoted by hate radio, Tea Party zealots, racists and many others.

Here's the problem in a nutshell, courtesy of the Christian Science Monitor:

Some believe that the extremist political climate in which McVeigh operated is today making a resurgence. Resentment over racial changes in America, combined with the bad economy, is producing an extremist comeback, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks militia activity.

Today there are 512 extremist militias and so-called patriot groups in the US, up from 149 such groups only a year ago, says the SPLC’s Mark Potok.

“[R]esurgent anger at the federal government has again caught fire,” Mr. Potok writes in a recent SPLC newsletter.